Creatures and NPCs can loot the corpses of fallen enemies, after which you can find this loot if you kill them

Creatures and NPCs have improved behavioural AI based on class — in any given group some may be aggressive towards you, some may be ambivalent, and others may avoid you outright.

Configurable increased spawns allow you tailor how many creatures and NPCs spawn in the game at any given spawn point

Improved faction system to better reflect inter-faction relations and ensure the player isn’t the center of the universe

New creatures and NPCs to add variety to the wasteland — all hand-crafted with their own stats, abilities, loot, weapons, textures and in some cases scripted AI behaviour.

Martigen’s Mutant Mod is currently in beta and can be discussed here in our forums. While you’re at it, you might also want to check out his Increased Spawns mod to add a little more challenge to your game.

In our continuing series of tips for using The G.E.C.K., Fallout 3’s PC editor, Level Designer Jeff Browne put together the following video, entitled “Bunker Kit & Snap to Reference.”

Below is a quick note on the video from Jeff about the video:

Because of the scope of our games, it’s necessary for our artists to build robust, flexible kits that allow us to re-use a relatively small number of assets in a wide variety of combinations. Thanks to these kits, level designers can create unique Vaults, offices or utility areas without the need for specialized art.

Learning to work with a new kit can be a time-consuming and sometimes frustrating process. Kits are composed of inter-locking pieces and it can take a while to get accustomed to the nuances of working with each one. The Enclave Bunker Kit is relatively small, but working with it can be as difficult as the larger kits. In this video, I explain the kit and how it’s to be used. This tutorial will also teach you how to work quickly with Reference Snapping.

Yesterday our office was closed in celebration of (and to avoid a chaotic travels due to) President Obama’s Inauguration. While around 2 million people watched from the National Mall, MTV Multiplayer’s Stephen Totilo decided to visit what’s left of the Mall playing Fallout 3. A cool idea, but maybe he needed a modder to add a couple million Super Mutants.

I wish I could find a good pic of the Mall after the two million people left. Might look closer to the image from Fallout 3.

One of our forum moderators, Rohugh, brought to my attention an interesting thread for all of you that get into cosplay or dressing up for Halloween. BGS forum member MightyJohn has begun work on a Brotherhood of Steel costume for Halloween this year.

If you click on the links in the thread, you’ll see he’s only posted shots of the helmet, which looks amazing. Should be interesting to see what he’s got put together come October.

For over a year, Thorlak Island Team have been working on a pretty expansive Oblivion project, entitled Thorlak Island: Blood in the Snow. This mod offers a new (snow covered) island to explore, all new NPCs and towns, nine new quests, and more.

The 1.1 title update for PC that was just released today also includes an extra feature — it deploys the Games for Windows LIVE Marketplace app that Fallout 3 will use to release downloadable content for the PC. It will appear as a separate application in your Start Menu under Microsoft Games for Windows LIVE. You can also download the app separately from Microsoft’s Games for Windows site.

Today Eurogamer put up a new interview with Fallout 3 DLC producer Jeff Gardiner. In the interview, he reveals some new details about Operation: Anchorage, the first DLC for Fallout 3, as well as new details on future DLC. Here’s an excerpt:

Eurogamer: Finally, can you tell us anything else about The Pitt and Broken Steel?

Jeff Gardiner: The Pitt is a more ‘Traditional’ Fallout 3 quest – it’s full of morally grey choices, shady NPCs, and features another city ravaged by time, neglect, nuclear waste and moral degradation.

Broken Steel not only extends the game to level 30, it alters the core ending. It allows the player to continue exploring the ashen Wasteland and see the fruits that are born, or that die, from their decisions. It will reprise several main characters, and conclude some of the story threads left dangling.

Here’s one last round of Hall of Fame mod entries for the year 2008 at Planet Elder Scrolls.

For December, four mods met the criteria necessary to be honored.

Morrowind Mods:

Vality’s Bitter Coast Mod: Now in Version 4.0, according to Vality, this mod, “replaces all the ‘leafy’ Bitter Coast trees with my own ‘speedtree’ like trees, a similar technique to what was used in Oblivion.”

This week we’re checking in with Sam Mangham, otherwise known as TheTalkieToaster within our forums. Sam is a 21-year-old student at the University of Bath in, where else, Bath, England. When he’s not modding or studying Physics and Chemistry, he spends his time walking, seeing movies, and baking cakes.

We’ll start today at 1Up, where they’ve got an Afterthoughts interview with Emil. In it, Emil discusses design decisions, inspirations, as well as some things you might not have known about the game. Here’s an excerpt:

1UP: The first time you played the game all the way through, what kind of character build did you use?

Emil: I’ve played the game at the office so many times, with so many different characters, at so many different stages of development, that I honestly can’t remember the first! But I do remember one of my favorites. I’d made this guy with Tag Skills in Science, Energy Weapons, and Speech. And every time I hit a option in dialogue, I would take it. It actually took me several hours of play before I looked at my character — and his suave little moustache — and then it hit me…I’d inadvertently created Tony Stark. I’d been playing the whole game in the role of Tony Stark, and hadn’t even realized it.

In Emil’s interview, there are a few references to the upcoming DLC. For more DLC discussion, check out WonderWallWeb, where there’s a new interview with Jeff Gardiner. Here’s a quick preview:

Can you tell us a little about the experience players will have in Operation Anchorage and what situations they will find themselves in?

Jeff Gardiner: The player will be tasked with taking the main Chinese stronghold outside of Anchorage. Along the way they’ll pick up new weaponry, and even get to command a small strike force of their choosing. They’ll be able to pick what type of team they’d like to create, and then how to utilize them in succeeding in their objective.

Speaking of Operation: Anchorage, it appears news of the DLC has made its way to Alaska by way of the Anchorage Daily News. I have to wonder what some residents of the Land of Midnight Sun had to think when they read the introduction.